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The First Steps Toward Japanese-American Internment

On this day in 1942 President Roosevelt issued Proclamation No. 2537 which required that Americans from Germany, Italy or Japan must register with the Department of Defense. Additional proclamations were to follow. They expanded the original requirements to include all persons of Japanese ancestry, even American-born citizens. They also froze their assets and set up “exclusion zones” that those registered could not enter. All this despite the fact that a 1941 federal report requested by Roosevelt indicated that more than 90 percent of Japanese Americans were considered loyal citizens. Proclamation No. 2537 permitted the arrest, detention and internment of enemy aliens who violated restricted areas, such as ports, water treatment plants or even areas prone to brush fires, for the duration of the war.

Just one month later a Roosevelt reluctantly signed Executive Order 9066, which sent many Japanese-American families into internment camps. On December 29, 1945 Proclamation 2537 was revoked, by Harry Truman, with Proclamation 2678.

On December 12, 1901 Guglielmo Marconi sent a wireless signal from Signal Hill in St John’s, Newfoundland to Poldhu, Cornwall a distance of 2,200 miles. There was, and still is today considerable skepticism about this claim he made. There was no independent confirmation of the reported reception. Upset by the skeptics, Marconi did another test in February of the following year. In that test he was able to get up to 2,099 miles. On January 18, 1903 he sent a message from President Roosevelt to King Edward VII, making the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States.

Marconi’s invention would go on to save many lives including those aboard the famous Titanic. Britain’s postmaster-general summed up, referring to the Titanic disaster,

“Those who have been saved, have been saved through one man, Mr. Marconi…and his marvelous invention.”

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Historyonair.com is the online home of the History Podcast. You can find history related articles, video, and audio files here. You can contact the author of this blog and its content at historypodcast@gmail.com.